East Renfrewshire Council has launched an outspoken attack on plans to scrap local education authorities in Scotland. The authority's education director, John Wilson, claims education works best locally and should be kept that way. He said: 'In East Renfrewshire, we have proved that a local approach to education works, and there is no need to disrupt what works well. 'Reorganisation would waste resources which we direct towards the classroom - 94% of our education budget - on an expensive and unwanted reorganisation.' And Mr Wilson has been backed in his views by COSLA, the umbrella council organisation. It follows an announcement by the Headteachers' Association of Scotland (HAS) at its AGM last Friday (17 November). HAS wants the nation's schools to be run by seven large education boards rather than 32 local authorities. Bill McGregor, HAS general secretary, told the BBC: 'It is difficult in some authorities to achieve the quality of control and quality assurance, given their current financial positions. 'A larger organisation will be better able to draw a larger pool of talent to ensure that accountability in Scottish education is in fact met.'
